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Body & Blood of Christ

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi – Year C

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi – the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is an expression of Christ’s unfathomable love for us. His Love is so deep that it seems crazy and foreign to our human understanding.

Waiting for Christ to come to us in the Eucharist requires an attitude of faith in His Love. It is so important for each of us to believe that Jesus desires to come into our hearts. He eagerly waits for our reception of Holy Communion because He wants to give Himself—Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity—to us through the Most Blessed Sacrament. God knows that one of our most fundamental psychological needs is to be accepted and loved. And faith tells us that Jesus fulfills these very needs in the Eucharist, where He loves and accepts us.

When we begin to truly believe how greatly Jesus loves us and awaits us, then we will realize that, if we delay and put off receiving the Eucharist, then God experiences that which psychology calls the “torment of looking for someone to come.” The torment of looking for a loved one to come is similar to the torment of love that is rejected. The more a mother loves her child who does not return, the greater is her torment in looking forward to seeing him again. Imagine, then, how it must be for God! If He loves us infinitely, then how great must His torment be in looking for each of us to come to Him in the Eucharist! When we realize the depths of God’s Love, we, too, will experience a painful yearning for His coming—a longing that only He can and will ever satisfy.

Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur

Readings for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ: Lectionary 169